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OFFICE 2016

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Nostalgia for 80s and 90s culture is all over the internet, especially social media. However, one place this mindset doesn't belong is in your practical
processes for your small business or startup.

Certain technologies and ways of communicating may see completely natural to your organization. You may favor Microsoft Word for document creation,
PowerPoint for information decks and slides, Microsoft Excel for spreadsheets and analytics presentation, paper memos for important announcements,
rolodexes for customer/client information, phone calls for internal office communication and email or flash drives (hopefully not floppy disks)
for large file distribution. Below we'll help you bring these processes into the 2010s.

- Documents: Most workers these days have used Microsoft Word as a basis of their office applications, usually learning how to type
and compose documents in the software. While this approach may seem logical for one-off information deliveries, you may consider using something
like Google Docs as a way to easily distribute the documents and allow for input and changes whenever necessary, especially when the document needs
to be checked by multiple people.

- Announcements: On a similar note, physical memos distributed for office announcements wastes paper and clutters desks and trashcans.
Email is a more cost-effective alternative for alerting your staff of any upcoming events or policy changes. You can even use a tool like Boomerang
to help schedule your emails if you have multiple announcements to make throughout the week or month.

- Client information: You may have a rolodex or even an email address book to keep up with prospects and leads, but oftentimes, that's
far from enough to help organize all of your data. Using a customer relationship management (CRM) system allows you to create various accounts
and categories for all of the people and clients you meet. You can even track the sales process from initial meeting to closed deal.

- File distribution: Though you can deliver files up to 25 MB in certain email providers, documents and other type of files larger
than 25MB would have to be broken up into multiple emails or transferred via a flash drive or external hard drive. By paying a small monthly or
annual fee depending on your needs, you can create a Dropbox account. You can decide who has access to your files or just send a link with the
ability to download but not edit.

- Presentations, data and analytics: Though PowerPoint and Excel can be crucial business tools, the flexibility that online applications
provide should not be ignored. Google's Slides and Sheets can make delivery of these presentations and analytics incredibly easy. As mentioned
in many of the above sections, collaborative teams and offices benefit from the ability to review and edit in real-time. You can also access PowerPoint
and Excel on the internet via Office365.

- Office communication: Although email seems like big step away from phone calls towards tech-savvy office management, you can go
even further by using messaging systems such as Google Hangouts and Slack, which allow you to monitor who is available on your team to talk at
any given time. You can also send files and images for immediate download.

For more tips like this, be sure to contact us at leijun@campbellbusinessservices.com!

We recently celebrated the Fourth of July and have now entered into the summer lull that comes before the start of school, Labor Day and the holiday
season. As managers and business owners, you have the perfect opportunity to set a few objectives for both the rest of the summer season and the
rest of the calendar year.

1) Try and implement a unique sales and marketing technique: When business slows and meetings get less frequent because of vacationing employees
and clients, you can always try to bring something new to your usual sales approach. Maybe you finally create an ecommerce site for your small
store. Maybe you create a Facebook or Twitter page to start expanding your online presence. Maybe you jump start your email marketing efforts by
creating a mid-year newsletter detailing all of your successes for the year so far and what you hope to accomplish by year’s end. Whatever you
decide to do, keep track of what works and what will need improvement. If you discover great results through a certain technique,

2) Hold a summer review meeting: Gather your team at least once or twice over the next few weeks and check the pulse of your company’s culture
and teamwork. Allow team members to ask questions about specific projects and pitch ideas for future endeavors. Provide a mission statement and/or
vision for the next half of the year. Though you are the manager, you want your team to maintain a sense of ownership over each of their tasks
so they can complete them to the best of their ability.

3) Recognize objectives completed and audit strategies for any open tasks: As a manager, you realize that celebrating the success of both the
company and team members greatly increases morale for the next round of tasks. Take a look and recognize all of the recently completed objectives
for the year and analyze reasons that the success occurred. On the other side of the spectrum, examine each of the tasks that have yet to be completed
by your team. Are there any missing parts that could help finish the task? If so, you may want to pivot your strategy so you can easily fix the
issue and move on to your company’s next project.

For more summertime management strategies, contact us today at leijun@campbellbusinessservices.com

Operations Management, Sales & Marketing, Financial Management and Talent Management are the four practical processes your business needs to establish
from the beginning. See above for how these apply to your company and email leijun@campbellbusinessservices.com if we can help you in any way.

In any Small Business, there is a prevalent set of business processes that must exist for a strong foundation. These practical processes provide more than
a set of rules for you and your employees, but help create and solidify the consistency, efficiency and innovation of your company.

Here are four essential examples.

1) Of course the goal of a business is to make money; therefore, you need a strong process for your Financial Management. The size of your small business/solo venture will determine how extensive this will need to be. Take the initial steps of setting up a company
bank account, ordering a company credit card, choosing your bookkeeping software, creating a budget and documenting your financial procedures.
Using the right technology combined with the right professionals allows you to automate this process for the most accurate results, and knowing
the amount of assets, liabilities and equity your company has equips you to make smarter financial decisions.

2) In order to keep the cash flowing, every business needs to utilize a Sales & Marketing process
to keep their name in front of potential clients/customers and service then in good standing. Develop your brand through a mix of traditional approaches
and digital practices with a decidedly personal touch; your customers and clients want to know that they matter and that the information you provide
benefits them beyond the product or service. For sales, create and maintain a schedule of measurable objectives, goals, benchmarks and checkpoints
along with specific procedures for documenting new and current clients. However, give yourself and your sales staff the flexibility to adjust the
process if something isn’t working.

3) At some point even the solopreneur will find the need for outside help, and for those small businesses that rely on employees, a proficient
process for dealing with Talent Management will help ensure
less problems. If you haven’t already, create an employee handbook and//or specific orientation process for every new hire. Provide opportunities
for professional development and training as often as you can, so that all team members feel invested in the company, no matter how small or large
their role actually is. Have weekly, monthly or quarterly “all-staff” meetings as well as an open door policy for feedback and evaluations. Many
employees desire to know how they are performing in their position, but often feel too afraid to ask.

4) Finally, your company must have an exhaustive Operations Management process
that makes everything flow together, bringing all of the above into your products, the who, what, when and even why to your business. Establish
essential daily operation policies for employee benefits and sick leave/vacation time, create company objectives and select and cultivate healthy
relationships with your vendors. If need be, hire a reliable, coachable and client-oriented operations manager.

Before focusing on elements such as sales & marketing, financial management and talent management and then delegating tasks to those specific departments,
a small business owner must understand why an operations manager is so crucial. Operations management sets the tone for the day-to-day tasks necessary
for a successful company.

Here are three ways describing how an operations manager is the heartbeat of your small business:

1) Selecting and cultivating relationships with your vendors - No matter how small or large your operation, you will need to contract
vendors for office supplies or product distribution. An operations manager will provide you the template for seeking out and using certain vendors,
whether that is the schedule for deliveries, certain contact persons or price points for different products.

2. Establishing daily procedures for employees - Your policies and procedure manuals are essential to providing structure within your
team. Click HERE for a list of items you should include. The procedures developed by your operations manager can help solidify the practical processes for new hire
training, team member absences and more.

3. Creating company objectives - Before releasing your sales and marketing teams out into the world, you must first provide them a
series of company-related goals to meet. These team members look to your guidance to provide them with a mission that permeates all their efforts.
Your operations manager can help clarify what is needed for the next month, six month or 1-year period.

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